Comstock's magazine 0620 - June June 2020 | Page 27

crowlers, 32-ounce cans filled on-site
for takeout orders. Now the brewery
is relying mainly on online orders
for curbside pickup and delivery.
Because beer sold by these channels
goes for significantly less money
than beer sold in pint glasses for on-site
consumption, Flatland is now teetering
on a razor-thin profit margin. “As long
as we don’t go negative, we can do this
for a while,” Mohsenzadegan says.
At Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse,
profits have taken a steep dive,
challenging the Sacramento brewery and
restaurant to find a sustainable path forward.
Since opening in May 2018, nine of
every 10 pints of beer produced has been
served on draft, over the bar, according to
co-owner and brewmaster Peter Hoey.
But with those sales totally nixed,
Hoey says he has ramped up the use
of crowlers. He has also been distributing
more of his canned and bottled
beers to grocery stores. Overall, he says,
volume sold is about half of what it was
prior to the shelter-in-place orders.
As of press time, Sacramento County
was expected to give the go-ahead for
restaurants to reopen for dining before
the end of the month. “The requirements
for service are very specific and require
retraining of our staff to be sure that we
are satisfying the new requirements,
so rushing to open would potentially
lead to failures in procedure,” Hoey
says. “We need time to provide proper
training of our staff to ensure their
safety and the safety of our guests.”
People are still buying beer, though it
seems unclear whether they are drinking
more or simply filling their fridges. While
supermarket beer sales have reportedly
spiked in recent months, many breweries
distribute little or none of their beer to
the retail market. “Those stories about
increased beer sales are very misleading,”
Hoey says. “They don’t capture the
impacts to the small breweries like us.”
Most small breweries only sell from
their own location. “That portion of the
Flatland Brewing Company is relying on
orders of four packs of cans to survive.
industry is really going to take a hard
hit,” says Tom McCormick, executive
director of the California Craft Brewers
Association, a trade group in Sacramento.
McCormick notes the popular urban
myth that people drink more alcohol
during recessions. “But this is different
— there’s no socializing,” he says.
Flexibility will be the key to survival
in the new era of social distancing, and
Moksa Brewing Co. in Rocklin, in Placer
County, is one brewery that seems to be
successfully adapting. Moksa has sold
90 percent of its beer over its own bar,
mainly for consumption on-site but
also in crowlers and 64-ounce growlers,
since opening in February 2018,
says head brewer Derek Gallanosa.
Even with sales for on-site consumption
temporarily cut to zero, Moksa has
done well given the circumstances, says
Gallanosa. The brewery has maintained
an even pace of production and sales, but
this has involved a transformation of the
business from a bar into a takeout and
shipping service. “This has been a big
adjustment,” Gallanosa says. “We had to
retrain our bar staff. They’ve shifted from
bartending to packaging and shipping.”
While the beer continues to sell like
before, there is significantly less revenue
flowing in for Moksa, which is known for
its rotating selection of stouts and India
“This has been a big adjustment. We had to
retrain our bar staff. They’ve shifted from
bartending to packaging and shipping.”
Derek Gallanosa, head brewer, Moksa Brewing Co.
pale ales. Gallanosa says a 16-ounce pint
of IPA served on-site at the bar might
run $7.50, whereas the to-go four-packs
garner roughly $4.50 per 16 ounces.
“So we’ve lost that much profit
margin,” Gallanosa says. He adds that the
new model of canning beer — and often
shipping it — requires extra cost and
work. “It’s more labor-intensive, because
we have to get the cans and the labels
and ship the beer out, rather than just
June 2020 | comstocksmag.com 27